Tight End? Fullback? Labels Part of the Game For WVU’s Trevon Wesco

Tight End? Fullback? Labels Part of the Game For WVU’s Trevon Wesco

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Redshirt senior Trevon Wesco might be suffering from a bit of an identity crisis. The West Virginia native, who came to WVU in 2016 following a one year playing stint at Lackawanna College, was brought in as a tight end, with an eye toward involving that position more in the Mountaineers’ spread shotgun attack. While those plans sputtered more than a bit, Wesco also received an indoctrination in lining up as a fullback, which was definitely an eye opener for him.

“Moving to fullback, I didn’t know much about fullback last year when I was in it,” Wesco said as the Mountaineers enter their final week of spring football practice. “So, now, I know way more. I know where to go, where to be at a certain time on certain blocks and all those things. It helped a lot. Last year I did it a little bit, but I was used to having my hand in the dirt.”

Trevon Wesco

The assignments and dynamics of the two positions have some similarities on their face, but also involve differences. There’s the blocking aspect, in which the physical demands are the same, but even in that there are differences. Wesco likes the ability to get a running start from the fullback position, as opposed to tight end where he often gets no more than a step or two before encountering his target.

“It’s way different in terms of the collision,” he said of the violence of the impact of a running start. “It’s way more.”

Mastering the blocking schemes and assignments at fullback are just part of what Wesco wants to achieve, though. After catching one pass in each of the past two seasons, plus a two-point conversion, he’s looking to stretch his range in the receiving game, and is receiving notice from the coaching staff.

“Trevon is really doing a great job for us,” tight ends coach Dan Gerberry said. “He’s really grown up. I think a lot of his maturing has happened off the field. He was always a fantastic kid, but things are really starting to click for him all the sudden. Trevon is doing a fantastic job in every way we could ask.”

Offensive coordinator Jake Spavital is also looking forward to the flexibility he has with a number of different players at both tight end and fullback.

“I think you can do a lot more when you have that tight end element. I started doing a lot of that when I was at Texas A&M. I didn’t have very many tight ends at Cal, but last year, we really had one true tight end body. You weren’t going to put Elijah (Wellman) in those attach tight end situations being 245-250 pounds. Now, we are getting these tight end bodies that are 270 pounds and can move. You can get real multiple with it. You can still have a run threat, but also have a dimension where they can stretch the field and get out on pass concepts. I always have been a big fan of tight ends. I think the way we have recruited and where we are at now, we are going to have five 6-foot-4 tight end bodies going into fall camp. I think that’s exactly where we want to be.”

None of this is new analysis, though. Getting more pass catching productivity out of the tight end\fullback position, and being able to line them up in different spots, was a subject of discussion last spring and fall, but it never came to fruition. This year, although there are more players with skills that look to be suited to one aspect of the offensive game over the other, there’s still planning for being able to move players from the backfield to tight end to wingback to slot.

“I do believe just because of his body type that he was thrown into that mold of a blocking guy, but I don’t necessarily think that is the fairest thing to say,” Gerberry said of characterizing Wesco as just a blocker, wherever he might line up. “He is a very talented athlete. He is very gifted at blocking, but he also is very gifted at doing other things that guys of his size just can’t do. It’s just not fair to say he is just that.”

For Wesco, it doesn’t matter what he’s called. Fullback, tight end, whatever, it’s all about making a contribution on the field.

“I think we are doing a lot more as a group,” he said. “We’re getting a tight end more involved.”